Resting Redux
In my last post I brought up the subject of resting in God and what that term might mean and how it aplies to our daily walk as Christians. What I left out of the equation is that this term is mostly used in conjunction with the concept of "trusting in God".
So let's just say for arguments sake that you are in a church or job situation where some thing is not going in the direction you would like to see it go. Maybe you feel the church body has not been as welcoming to visitors as you see described in scripture and you address this area of concern with someone in a leadership position. Maybe you have prayed about it or maybe not but you feel burdened enough by it to act.
The leaders may accept you with open arms or label you a trouble maker but that is not the point. You have done what you felt was the right thing to do. The question is this: is taking action not trusting in God—whereby trusting in God means that you believe that He is in control and will take care of the situation if you just "rest" and pray.
I guess you can see where I am going here -it is confusing to me and I have been around these kinds of things for many a year now.
I am generally the type that when I see something I feel needs addressing—I do—and many times in the past this has been to my detrement. My quandry is when is it appropriate to keep quiet and in so doing you are exercising your faith by "trusting" God and then once the situation has been prayed about you "rest" and do nothing and wait for God to handle it. I mean King David was annointed King of Israel many, many years before Saul was eventually taken out of the picture. He had many opportunities to take him out himself and would not lift his hand against the Lord's chosen. He even felt bad about cutting off that little piece of cloth from his robe while he was in the cave.
I have lately been feeling that I don't trust God enough to take care of the situations that I find my self in in this life. It seems there is never enough money to get rid of the debt we have accumulated. I was working freelance for a business a couple of years ago that enabled us to do a lot of the extra things that a regular 9 to 5 paycheck doesn't quite cover. But the work always came into me late in the production cycle and I found myself spending many evenings away from my family in front of the computer in the basement to get the various projects to the printer on time. After what I thought was much prayer and consideration, I raised my freelance rates and the client took his work elsewhere. I did this believing that God would take care of the rest and that I would get some new work in from someone who could stick to a realistic schedule and who valued me enough to respect the bounderies that I needed to operate within.
This never happened and to this day I don't know why.
Yes, I got myself into debt and I can't expect God to be some Sugar Daddy doleing money out to me whenever I need it irregardless of the circumstances of how and why and wherefore. But at the time—and also currently— I felt that I was doing the right thing for my health and wellbeing even though I gave up several thousand dollars a year in extra income that could be very useful at this point in life.
Maybe it is like that old faith message from years back that went like this: You can have faith to believe that the key in your hand will start the car in your driveway but until you put it into the ignition and turn it, your faith is just a belief and not a reality. Did I misplace the key or choose the wrong car—I don't know at this point.
Is it foolish of me to believe that the story I just told you has anything to do with trusting God, faith and/or resting? Am I being presumptuous in thinking that I was correct in my belief system about God and how He wroks and that somehow I failed in keeping my end of the "bargain" whatever that might be construed to be. In other words I trust in God and am rewarded for that trust by getting a new client who appreciates me and my time constraints enough to be on time and not force me into working at hours that I don't really want to be working. Seemed simple enough at the get go but I guess is like so many other things in life that we live through and continue to make an attempt to understand and grow with. But it is still a mystery and seems destined to remain so.
Like the many other things we have believed over the years, this part of life is currently under the microscope and what we do with it and how long we look at it before coming to terms with it and moving on to something else has not been decided. What I don know at this point is that on any given day with a 60 percent chance of rain there is always a 40 percent chance that it won't. If you want to take a ride on that kind of day there is a good likelyhood that you will get wet—but then again a chance that you won't.
How long has it been since your last ride?
So let's just say for arguments sake that you are in a church or job situation where some thing is not going in the direction you would like to see it go. Maybe you feel the church body has not been as welcoming to visitors as you see described in scripture and you address this area of concern with someone in a leadership position. Maybe you have prayed about it or maybe not but you feel burdened enough by it to act.
The leaders may accept you with open arms or label you a trouble maker but that is not the point. You have done what you felt was the right thing to do. The question is this: is taking action not trusting in God—whereby trusting in God means that you believe that He is in control and will take care of the situation if you just "rest" and pray.
I guess you can see where I am going here -it is confusing to me and I have been around these kinds of things for many a year now.
I am generally the type that when I see something I feel needs addressing—I do—and many times in the past this has been to my detrement. My quandry is when is it appropriate to keep quiet and in so doing you are exercising your faith by "trusting" God and then once the situation has been prayed about you "rest" and do nothing and wait for God to handle it. I mean King David was annointed King of Israel many, many years before Saul was eventually taken out of the picture. He had many opportunities to take him out himself and would not lift his hand against the Lord's chosen. He even felt bad about cutting off that little piece of cloth from his robe while he was in the cave.
I have lately been feeling that I don't trust God enough to take care of the situations that I find my self in in this life. It seems there is never enough money to get rid of the debt we have accumulated. I was working freelance for a business a couple of years ago that enabled us to do a lot of the extra things that a regular 9 to 5 paycheck doesn't quite cover. But the work always came into me late in the production cycle and I found myself spending many evenings away from my family in front of the computer in the basement to get the various projects to the printer on time. After what I thought was much prayer and consideration, I raised my freelance rates and the client took his work elsewhere. I did this believing that God would take care of the rest and that I would get some new work in from someone who could stick to a realistic schedule and who valued me enough to respect the bounderies that I needed to operate within.
This never happened and to this day I don't know why.
Yes, I got myself into debt and I can't expect God to be some Sugar Daddy doleing money out to me whenever I need it irregardless of the circumstances of how and why and wherefore. But at the time—and also currently— I felt that I was doing the right thing for my health and wellbeing even though I gave up several thousand dollars a year in extra income that could be very useful at this point in life.
Maybe it is like that old faith message from years back that went like this: You can have faith to believe that the key in your hand will start the car in your driveway but until you put it into the ignition and turn it, your faith is just a belief and not a reality. Did I misplace the key or choose the wrong car—I don't know at this point.
Is it foolish of me to believe that the story I just told you has anything to do with trusting God, faith and/or resting? Am I being presumptuous in thinking that I was correct in my belief system about God and how He wroks and that somehow I failed in keeping my end of the "bargain" whatever that might be construed to be. In other words I trust in God and am rewarded for that trust by getting a new client who appreciates me and my time constraints enough to be on time and not force me into working at hours that I don't really want to be working. Seemed simple enough at the get go but I guess is like so many other things in life that we live through and continue to make an attempt to understand and grow with. But it is still a mystery and seems destined to remain so.
Like the many other things we have believed over the years, this part of life is currently under the microscope and what we do with it and how long we look at it before coming to terms with it and moving on to something else has not been decided. What I don know at this point is that on any given day with a 60 percent chance of rain there is always a 40 percent chance that it won't. If you want to take a ride on that kind of day there is a good likelyhood that you will get wet—but then again a chance that you won't.
How long has it been since your last ride?
I can't speak to your specific situation, but I do know that being a freelancer is a difficult proposition, especially for people of our temperaments. I'm a phlegmatic (and so are you to a certain degree) and thus I don't always have the drive to "sell" myself to clients. I take a laid back approach to looking for work, believing that God would provide the way He always has - just in time and seemingly out of the blue. It's somewhat of a flaw for someone who is in business for himself. In some ways it's good, though. I've always been a little gun shy about purchasing equipment, only buying something when I need it or I know it will make me money, and I haven't bought on credit. I don't take chances very often and so the risk/reward factor is low. Maybe I shouldn't be a freelancer - I don't know. This is something I've been thinking of lately.
It might not be so much of a question of trusting in God as it is discovering what drives you to make the decisions you make. Ultimately, our life decisions should come from our trust in Him. But our understanding of Him is often clouded by our personalities, our own rose-colored glasses of who we are and how we became that way, which is much more holistic than simply the current situations we find ourselves in.
I'm not sure I answered your question - not that I should or even that you asked me specifically. But I do understand some of your frustration/confusion as you and I do have some similar rides, so to speak.
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I had to go to the dictionary on phlegmatic. I have seen that word but never really knew what it meant. The American Heritage Dictionary says phlegmatic is:
- Having or suggesting a calm, sluggish temperament; unemotional.
And as our friend Denny would probably say I may resemble that—although sluggish is not a word that I would use to describe either you or me—I guess we would have to ask our wives.Knowing what drives us to make the decisions we make might be a place to start looking at the dynamic that I think I may be reaching for.
I enjoyed being in business for myself but was under priced during a period when everything computery cost an arm and a leg. I was not disciplined to put money away when I bought new equipment and there was always something coming up that needed money like tires, washing machines and the like. Once you fall behind financially, it is hard to get out of the hole unless you have a rich uncle pass away or you make a lot more than you spend.
I guess part of the daily living this stuff out is trusting in the right things and indeed is where I find myself. I trusted in the church for a long time and now find myself on the outside of that in a good way I would have to say. Good because I am being forced to find my trust in Christ—bad because I am so many years behind where I sometimes think I should be in all of this.
All in all I have hope that a corner is being turned and that a freshness is being restored to my ride.
Thanks for your continued perspective.
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Most (if not all) people are a combination of temperaments, rather than one.
A slightly more thorough, though still abbreviated, glance at what makes a phlegmatic temperament (taken directly from the JILM website):
"Inclusion Strengths: the ability to perform tedious tasks, relate to both tasks and people, calm easygoing, extremely efficient and perfectionistic. The Phlegmatic in Inclusion can function quite well in a hostile social setting. Nothing “ruffles their feathers.”
Inclusion Weaknesses: unwillingness to become involved, tendency to be an observer rather than a participant, and use of a verbal defense that often hurts others.
Control Strengths: the tendency to be very practical, conservative, peace-loving and a good peace maker/arbitrator.
Control Weaknesses: indecisiveness, the tendency to procrastinate, and being very difficult to motivate. They use verbal defenses that often hurt others; it is used against anyone who tries to motivate or control them, particularly Cholerics.
Affection Strengths: well balanced, easygoing, non-demanding, calm and realistic in demands for love and affection.
Affection Weaknesses: unwillingness to become involved in deep relationships, tendency to be an observer only, rarely self-sacrificing, unemotional and inexpressive. Verbal defenses are used to protect low energy supply with regard to physical and sexual involvement."
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That just about does it....doesn't it.
That's my kind of dictionary.....what is JILM?
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